House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) is speaking at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School today (Update: Cantor's scheduled speech was canceled), where he plans to discuss how to bridge the gap between rich and poor in the United States. Given that Cantor has dedicated his political career to upholding this disparity, he has wealth of knowledge on the topic. Since becoming House Majority Leader, Cantor has done everything in his power to protect the wealthy from making the same sacrifices he's determined to force upon everyone else. Whether he's working to end Medicare for seniors, withholding relief from disaster victims to secure further spending cuts, or using the unemployed as political fodder while rejecting policies that will create jobs, Eric Cantor has proven that he is committed to making life easier for people who are already on top, even if it comes at the expense of those who are struggling.

In September, Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, initiated an investigation of Planned Parenthood's financial records looking for misappropriated federal funds and requesting paperwork going back over 13 years. This Republican vendetta against Planned Parenthood is part of a larger fight in which Republicans are trying to prevent women from being in control of their reproductive health. To that end, House Republicans introduced a multitude of bills and amendments since January that would chip away at women's reproductive rights by eliminating Title X funding, defunding Planned Parenthood, imposing harsh restrictions on funding for abortions, replacing sexual education programs with abstinence-only programs, redefining rape to limit abortion exceptions, reinstating the global gag rule, supporting crisis pregnancy centers and imposing harsher parental notification laws.

This week's Sunday political talk shows saw a litany of standard GOP untruths. On CNN, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) repeated the favorite false Republican talking point of late: that businesses aren't hiring because of "uncertainty." He was joined in his lie by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and presidential candidate Herman Cain, both of whom appeared on Fox News Sunday. Both Cain and Ryan also revived an old piece of misinformation — that raising taxes on top earners would disproportionately harm small businesses — which was echoed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). For his part, Graham misrepresented the public's opinion on taxing the wealthy, and absurdly claimed that "everything" — including unemployment — is worse because of President Obama's policies. Ryan dredged up some old lies about the House-passed GOP budget's effects on Medicare, which it would essentially destroy, and then falsely claimed that the Affordable Care Act's Independent Payment Advisory Board puts bureaucrats in charge of "rationing."